Back to Form on Shore Leave
by
RustedChrome
A high water mark for this bunch so far. The title track or "Drinking in the Graveyard" are the sort of Celtic-tinged pint-raisers fans have come to expect form this Celtic rock group which serves up a heady brew of topical numbers from the moving "Trains Not Taken" to the breaking-out-of-jail fiddle on "Rainville", which paints a wild slide-show of their hometown in Vancouver, British Columbia (though curiously never specifically names the city).
Throughout The Town Pants seem to raise the bar (pardon the pun) on the Celtic rock oeuvre. Both lyrically and musically, these are not plain old Whiskey and street songs. The somber "Angel" and steam-of-unconsciousness thunder of "Death Feels Like Me" sit well on Shore Leave, with "Coming Home" being perhaps the only true ballad of the record. The Keogh Brothers on dual lead vocals shine throughout like the Everly's at the end of their bar tab who break more strings and the whole effect presents considerable gusto that seemed not always present on their last studio album.
The Town Pants' imagination obviously running much deeper than the genre's normal fare, as with the group's tip of the hat to the fatal British wildman actor being his own worst enemy on "The Unlikely Redemption of Oliver Reed" with tin whistleman Aaron Chapman on vocals. Toronto songwriter/playwright Kevin Quain's witty "Sailor Song" is also worth the price of admission on Shore Leave as the Town Pants move it from a Waits-ian Waltz to their signature amphetamine gallop...
Recorded in Vancouver in 2009, and featuring a few guest appearances from Spirit of the West's Geoffrey Kelly, ex-54-40 keys-man David Osborne who lends a Blue Rodeo-esque Hammond organ to the recording on various tracks as well as Ford Pier (ex-DOA, Show Business Giants). Well worth the wait from 2006 Weight of Words album, The Town Pants have never sounded both wilder and more mature, and probably the groups best sounding album to date.
Like "Rasputin" on their previous live album, The group shows a knack for the unexpected and pulls a 180 degree turn with considerable elan with Shore Leave finishing off with an acoustic Appalachian-metal cover of Iron Maiden's "Run to the Hills" that really scores, showing that the lads haven't taken themselves too seriously. Yet.
